Buzzin Cricket

Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff steadied the ship and rescued England in the first test match against the West Indies in Kingston, yesterday.

But despite the fact that Pietersen put all the recent problems of losing the England captaincy and frankly being humiliated by lack of support, critics slated him for missing out on his 16th test century as an unnecessarily wild shot meant he was caught for 97.

Kevin Pietersen plays exciting cricket. Taking risks means he scores more fours and sixes than his team-mates, as was the case yesterday. When it comes to Twenty20 betting, he is the man you want in your team.

England didn’t get off to a good start. At one point they were 94 for 4.  New captain Andrew Strauss was out for 7, Alistair Cook made 4, and Ian Bell managed just 28 from 72 balls.  Because of Pietersen’s flamboyant innings England finished the first day on 235 for 5.

It’s so typically English to look at a failed century and not appreciate that Kevin Pietersen plays that way, and if he tried to be more sensible he would probably lose a bit of his edge.

In a post-match in Pietersen defending the shot by saying,

“That’s how I play… if you’d given me 97 this morning I’d take it.”

West Indies spin bowler Sulieman Benn bowled an amazing 33 consecutive overs and also took the wicket of Paul Collingwood with an LBW.

Benn told reporters “Bowling against Pietersen was good fun and competitive – I like batsmen who come at me and it worked in my favour.”

Benn ended the day on 2 for 64 and Pietersen was caught by his own mistake.  I’m not convinced Benn won that contest, or you?